


Waiting for my King

by RuneOak



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Community: merlin_writers, Gen, Post 5X13, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 03:15:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1413004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuneOak/pseuds/RuneOak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired from the song I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) by The Proclaimers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting for my King

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitty_fic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_fic/gifts).



> This is a part of the theme challenge for March at **merlin_writers**. Inspired by this prompt from **kitty_fic** : 
> 
> But I would walk five hundred miles  
> And I would walk five hundred more  
> Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles  
> To fall down at your door  
> \- I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) by The Proclaimers

Merlin liked these quiet mornings when he could just sit and think. When the chaos of the day was yet to start, when the birds were just starting to wake, when the sky wasn’t yet fully awake.

Being who he was, his thoughts invariably wound up being centered on that one person, Arthur. The young man that he had met for the first time in that courtyard goofing about and teasing his servant all that time ago was far from the person that he was later, and yet Merlin believed in him. Little by little Arthur had transformed into the man that was destined to be the Once and Future King.

Merlin smiled as he recalled those days of old, how Arthur had ridden out without thinking twice about it a hundred times regardless of who stood by him or didn’t, to always do the right thing, whether that was saving an innocent druid boy, defending his manservant's tiny village, rescuing a handmaid, or facing a mighty dragon.

And Merlin was by his side, not just because he was the Prince's manservant and it was his duty, but because he wanted to be there. He was there next to him when Arthur, the man used to feathered mattresses and down pillows shared the forest floor with his comrades, and when he gracefully offered the bed to the ladies without a second thought and shared the living room floor with his servant. Merlin was there when he rode out to fight, in spite of being told not to, because he had felt responsible for protecting this man who was willing to walk to his death because he believed it to be his duty.

After those few initial years, Merlin did not even mind all the menial labour he was assigned, because he saw how hard Arthur worked, especially after Uther grew weaker and most of the duties fell on Arthur’s young shoulders. Arthur woke up earlier than he was used to, and worked on his fighting skills as well as personally looked after the training of the army. He attended matters of the court. He went out on supervision of the kingdom. He organized treaties with the other kingdoms and tried his best to win them over.

Merlin had wanted to be beside him at all those times, providing support when he was training, providing counsel when he had difficulty at court, providing comfort when he came back exhausted to his chambers after a long day, even providing company on the rare occasion that the king wanted to go to the tavern.

And he had been there right next to Arthur, during all the moments that he was working his way past his father's death, past the betrayal of the people he trusted the most, past the terrible battle against his own sister, past the knowledge of Merlin's magic, past those final excruciating moments with a piece of sword stuck in his side, up till his last breath. 

These quiet mornings, when the world is yet asleep and the planet is still, Merlin likes to remember all those moments with his King. But he is not sad. It has been over a thousand years, and Merlin can almost smell it in the air - the day is not far when Arthur will rise again, when Merlin will again walk beside him, come home to him, get drunk next to him, work hard for him, be lonely without him, wake up next to him, dream about the times with him, and maybe this time he'll get to grow old with him. 

They will have their golden age.


End file.
